The Way Of The World Series

James describes the extremes of what people will go to in order to get the things that they desire: (James 4:2) “You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.”

And the problem is that when you get what’s on the other side, you are never satisfied. The object of your desires never lives up to it’s billing and you are left feeling empty, unsatisfied and so you WANT more and more!

It is lust of the eyes that caused King David his trouble. He saw this beautiful woman taking a bath and wanted her for his own. He became a liar. An adulterer. And a murderer.

C. the pride of life - let’s call it COCKINESS

Arrogance. The pride of life consists of bragging about your accomplishments. What you’ve achieved and accomplished in life. If you’re not careful and cautious, the pride of life can be found in the brand name of your clothes. The pride of life can be found in “how many acres you farm.“ You can find the pride of life in the “new car” smell of your SUV. You can find the pride of life in the title before your name “PhD”.

We can feel pretty important about ourselves based on what we’ve achieved or acquired in life. But we need to e careful. Such pride causes you to put your faith in yourself rather than in God. “Well look what I’ve achieved. I’m pretty impressive.”

The Bible makes it pretty clear that pride will lead to our downfall. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18) If you are of the mindset that you can do anything and achieve anything on your own power - be on the lookout for God to show you exactly how small you are!

CARNALITY…COVETOUSNESS…COCKINESS! That is worldly living. If you are chasing those things - you are not chasing the Father. You are not living by the Spirit of God!

“Well I wish there was an example of someone who dealt with worldly living and was successful in living by the Spirit.”

Well today is YOUR day! We are not limited to just merely suppose what it looks like to live life according to the Spirit - we can read about someone who lived life perfectly according to the Spirit of God.

D. The description of living by the Spirit as demonstrated by Jesus!

Look at Matthew 4:1-11

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[a]”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,